Beastly


33 years ago, Ridley Scott made a fine science fiction horror movie, and for whatever reason, decided recently to go back there and sort of answer some questions left open back then. Prometheus is a good-looking and riveting movie, but it left me in the end laughing out loud. The first question that come to mind at the end is: does Mr. Scott have some kind of problem with sex? This is, of course, an open question from the first movie and its sequels, but in this entry, the monsters’ relationship to a grotesque view of sex is much more obvious. Various other questions may be addressed in this “training video”, such as, why touch the goo? When you see an alien, how close should you get? And should you order the calamari?

The movie was engaging, lots of thrills and suspense, but it didn’t add much value to the franchise or to the history of cinema. Maybe I should have gone 3D?

Unfortunately for me, with the new Batman movie due to open before long, I owe the GF at least one serious realistic movie and probably a date movie on top.

Anti-Social


I deactivated my Facebook account today. I haven’t deleted it yet, but I think I will before long. I just don’t find it interesting or useful. I’ve never learned anything from it, and anything I put up on it will just be there forever, possibly causing trouble for me in one way or another, so seeing an thorough end to it seems more worthwhile than finding out what games or silliness one person or another more or less remotely connected to my life, past more than present, mostly, may be up to.

Twitter, too, I think. It can be entertaining – more so than Facebook ever was – but unless you’re following some users who use it well, it’s only entertaining for about five minutes. And you really need to be following lots and lots of people, none of whom you’re ever likely to meet (or like in real life, probably). And most of them are likely not to use it well. Frankly, two dozen updates in a row are more boring than not, evidence that someone needs a blog. Or a friend. A physical one.

I’m also considering closing down my blog. It’s been fun, but if I want to collect hyperlinks to pages of things I find interesting there are more useful methods than this. I can’t remember the last time I looked back for something I’d blogged about. And if I want to communicate with friends and family, again, email works well, and my Googlepages site (or whatever they’re called now) can be used to post photographs or whatever else just as easily, and probably more so.

My own updates to these so-called social media sites or web 2.0 or whatever are less than worthwhile. I don’t even care about what I think that much, so I can’t expect anyone else to be interested. If you need to get in touch, you’ve got my phone number or my email address, so look for me there.

Mileage Cancer Council NSW has a one-mile race each year as a fund-raiser, the City Mile Dash, over by Darling Harbour. I didn’t manage to get much money together, although the rest of the team at work did a terrific job (we finished as the top third team), but as much as I’m happy to contribute, it was the race I was interested in, reliving glory days of the Fifth Avenue Mile, back in NYC. (At least this one has no association with that crazy birther dude.) I haven’t run a race like this in a long time and was badly undertrained even for the races I usually participate in, so a 7:29 finish was entirely satisfactory, especially for the oldest participant on our team. Next year . . . .

Partnerships The PM, Julia Gillard, opposes same-sex marriage, and disingenuously now says it’s o.k., because, look, she’s in a relationship without being married. Wrong. Australia recognises de facto relationships, i.e., common law marriage, albeit between a man and a woman only. To say that that gives everyone the same basis is just a lie. Opponents to same-sex marriage need to get over themselves. No one’s going to make anyone marry anyone else, and your church can impose whatever rules it wants on its congregation. Just get out of the way, so that committed relationships can be recognised with all the privileges and constraints as any other. It’s not about “more” rights; it’s about the same rights for everyone. Ms. Gillard’s opposition is based on scruples or squeamishness she cannot afford to express politically, obviously, and it’s time for her to grow up.

Want The boys would look swell supporting their candidate, if they were American cats.

Lights The Vivid Festival is on again, and this year’s line-up is more interesting to me than last year, so I’ve booked a couple of shows. Maybe I was being conservative, insofar as I was bringing a date, so the first selection was Temper Trap, a popular act out of Melbourne, I think, who made quite a success of their first release, Conditions, an enjoyable bit of pop music, and who’s second album, Trembling Hands has just come out ahead of the festival. (Haven’t heard the CD yet, which is interesting: remember when a band went out on tour to promote their latest release, and you had the record almost as soon as you had the tickets for the show, and that night you’d put the album on, psyching yourself up for the night? Yeah, didn’t happen.) I’m not sure what I thought of the new material. The sound in the Opera House presents some challenges, as so often with opera houses generally, and rock ‘n’ roll seems to overwhelm the acoustic design, especially if you’re stuck up in the back, as we were. I swear I bought better tickets, but oh, well. The sound issues wouldn’t have been a problem, weren’t a problem, but the lights . . . . Yes, Vivid is a “festival of music, lights, and ideas,” and it’s wonderful what they can do with lasers and such, but the strobes and the big stage back-lighting rigs were right in our eyes. It was hard to watch the stage most of the time. Not their fault, of course, and I’m sure it was spectacular downstairs, but I’m nearly as blind as I am deafened in consequence. A very good show, though, nevertheless. Great crowd energy, a tight band, really rocking out. Nothing bad to say about any of it, in the end. Tomorrow we’ll go see the LCD Soundsystem’s farewell tour concert movie, Shut Up and Play the Hits. I’m looking forward to it. But I do wonder if I shouldn’t have gone ahead and booked My Brightest Diamond; she was a highlight when Lou Reed & Laurie Anderson curated two years ago.